we usually bring you the ridiculousist. thank for watching. erin "outfront" starts now. "outfront" next. just 26 days until the fiscal cliff, and a new idea is born. it comes from an unexpected source, howard dean. does the former vermont governor's plan add up? plus, a former u.s. navy sailor charged with attempted espy naj tonight. the alleged benefactor was russia. the war on drugs? have we lost it? let's go "outfront." good evening. a bright idea brought to us by the liberal former governor of vermont, howard dean. the man who brought us the

scream heard round the world when he ran for president. yeah! >> dean says let's face it, america. taxes need to go up for everyone. now, this might not be what you expect from someone like howard dean. it's certainly not the president's position or the position of most americans. another new poll out today shows most people like the president's ideas of only raising taxes on other people, specifically the top 2%. individuals making over $200,000 a year or families making over $250,000 a year. the problem is according to the congressional research service, the math doesn't add up. that tax hike would give $678 billion in additional revenue over ten years. remember, we're $16 trillion in the debt hole. if we go with howard dean's idea, we have $2.8 trillion for

17% of the debt. adam davidson is the co-founder of npr's planet money, and he did the math. he wrote in the "new york times" a while ago a set of numbers that stuck with me. that increasing the middle class tax burden an additional 8% would actually have a bigger impact than taxing millionaires at 100%. of course, once you tax millionaires at 100% there's nothing else the next year. even bill clinton aagrees. here's what he said at a conference back in may. >> i think you could tax me at 100%, and you wouldn't balance the budget. we are all going to have to contribute to this. if middle class people's wages were going up again and we had some growth in the economy, i don't think they would object to going back to the tax rates that were there when i was predz. >> with now break through today and the fiscal cliff negotiations, is this a starting point?

"outfront" republican congressman james langford of oklahoma, incoming chairman of the republican policy committee, the fifth ranking position in the house gop leadership. good to see you, sir. appreciate you taking the time. what about this idea of raising taxes on everyone? the math actually in this case is much more promising. it works much better. >> right. i heard your lead-in on it, and you said this is a new idea floated by howard dean. ints a new idea. several democrats have floated that a while. the code word is going back to the clinton tax rates and talk about the clinton economy and we should go back to the clinton tax rates. what that means is all tax rates on all americans go back up because the tax rates were brought down in 2001 and 2003. so it's not new, and no, i don't support that. i don't think that's a great idea at all. it will slow down the economy. >> all right. the truth is when you look at economists' evaluations, it will slow down the economy right now. raising taxes would.

there's no question about it, but if the problem is that we have a lot of debt and there has to be some pain, whether in cuts or the form of higher tax revenues, that means there has to be pain. look at the math. $2.8 trillion to go back to the clinton era rates. that's 17% of debt wiped out overnight. if you're worried about the debt, how can't you look at that seriously? >> the reason i would say it's not 17% of our debt because right now we have a trillion dollar deficit every single year. if we went back to zero, that's true. right now with fourth year in a row with over a trillion dollars in deficit spending, that deficit and debt continues it to climb. it doesn't wipe it out. what does it do to the overall economy. we're not just dealing with one tax increase right now. the affordable care act actually begin on january 1st as well for people making $200,000 or more or people with large medical bills. that already starts coming up. this is an additional tax

increase on top of that tax increase. >> what about what bill clinton said? he said once things start to get better, and that's a crucial point he was making. he wasn't saying doing it right away. once it gets better, taxes go up on the middle class. do you agree with that? >> i don't, actually. the reason being is that right now if you look at the real math on it, in 2007 and 2012 we have the same amount of revenue. obviously 2008 and '09 we had a dramatic drop in federal revenues coming in. we've slowly climbed back up. revenue has gone up every single year in the obama administration, and now we're at historic highs. the difference is our spending increased a trillion dollars from five years ago, but the revenue is the same. >> a lot of that spending is things to help the economy, right? it's the payroll tax cut extension, which your party supported, right? it's extending unemployment benefits and things like that. it's the war. >> right. that's going to be the challenge of the whole perspective right now. we have two philosophies. one is saying we're spending too

much and the other is saying we don't spend enough. obviously the last four years are spending more to stimulate. i'm not sure if that will work long-term. we've crossed 100% of debt to gdp. i don't think that gets better as you get higher. >> the only thing that confuses me about it, i feel like in a situation where all you do is keep cutting taxes and have a revenue problem, right? you give a tax cut to the middle class you don't want it to take it away from them. you keep giving out things p and you never take them back. >> well, that's the same thing we did on the spending side. the stimulus spending was intended to be a one-year anoma anomaly. all those agencies and individuals keep receiving that same amount of money. so that one year of stimulus spending is now stretched into four years of stimulus spending and headed into its fifth year. we're dealing with the same thing. that is the challenge of this. we're at an impasse in

philosophies. >> you say the democrats are doing that on the spending side. that's a separate conversation. let's say they are. i'm simply saying you're doing the same thing on the tax side, so we lose revenue thanks to republicans and we end up spending more money thanks to democrats and the whole country keeps going to a worse place. >> yeah. it makes it a really tough situation. the context is important on this. in 2003 when tax rates were brought down it's because the economy was really dragging. there was an increase in the economy that happened in 2004, '05, '06, '07 and in 2010 at a bad place the president and democrats that still had the house and senate during the lame duck that said the economy is weak. we can't raise taxes on anybody, including the upper 2%. they chose in a weak economy in 2010 not to do that because they knew that would hurt the economy. quite frankly, we have the same economy now that we had two years ago. consumer confidence is up, but total gdp growth has done down the last two years slightly but continuing to go down. we're not in a better spot right now to raise taxes like two

years ago. >> tom coburn is talking about getting the rates up for the top 2%. here he is on abc news. just want to play it. >> okay. >> sorry. i'll read it to you. it's a graphic. we have no leverage on that, so whether we want taxes to go up or not, they're going to. we can't stop it from happening. the real elephant in the room is entitlements. taxes go up at the beginning of the year if you don't do a deal. the only deal is have them go up on fewer people than they otherwise would. that seems to be something that a republican would -- you don't have a lot of leverage? >> that's the challenge dealing with democrats like howard dean and others that say let's raise it on everybody. that creates this situation where we haves in a bad idea. we agree with the majority of falgss saying the taxes shouldn't go up on anybody. we believe it shouldn't go up on the upper brackets. the proposal from the president, people say the upper bracket a little bit. dif denlds on the upper bracket move from 15% on december 31st

to 43.4% on the 1st of january. we think that's a really big cut. what would up happen is the wealthy would stop doing stocks that do dif denvidends. it hurts seniors dependent on dividends and pension funds. it has a trickle down effect. >> it could hurt seniors. i know changes in dividend taxation haven't affected stock prices which is crucial. but a fair point. >> it does affect the number of stocks that offer dividends. once they went down to the 15% rate, more offered as an incentive. that would go away, which will cause a major shuffle along senior adults now. >> thank you very much for the time tonight. "outfront" next, new jersey governor chris christie went to the white house today. he went hat in hand. he asked for $36 billion in money for new jersey. wait. isn't he a fiscal hawk? plus, syrian president al assad aaccuses the u.s. of

manufacturing stories as a pretext for an invasion. defense secretary leon panetta responding today. after john mack cahfee is in cu, he was rushed to the hospital. and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. and bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. anyone have occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas, bloating? yeah. one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues

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our second story "outfront," chemical weapons. the world is watching syria and america is the country that will act. leon panetta issued a warning to syria today saying the united states will not stand by and watch the country cross a quote-unquote red line. >> the whole world is watching very closely, and the president of the united states has made very clear that there will be consequences, there will be consequences if the assad regime makes the terrible mistake by using these chemical weapons. >> syria denies it is mobilizing chemical weapons in a civil war in which 40,000 people have lost their lives in 21 months. instead, the syrian government

says the united states is trying to create fear and set the ground for an attack. secretary of state hillary clinton today met with russia's foreign minister twice today in dublin. these are important meetings because russia is a syrian ally and helped the country amass the chemical weapons it has. is it too late? national security contributor fran townsend is a member of the cia and homeland security external advisory board and colonel cedric layton is a member of the staffs. what are the consequences? is the u.s. going to passing the point of no return here? >> it is. the most recent information suggests they're actually preparing to be able to launch these warheads containing sarin gas and other chemical weapons. that's a problem, right? now a military strike could inadvertently trigger the dissemination of such weapons, what you have to do is get the intelligence to interrupt the decision cycle. get between assad and the

individual who presses the button to launch that missile. that's a very big ask from the intelligence community and very difficult. that's the positive we're really in. >> the intelligence community which to be honest hasn't really seemed to be at least, you know, totally aaware of everything happening every step of the way here. >> okay, except there's been -- there was a commission that looked at the failures in iraq and strengthened the intelligence community. there are standards for aassessing the credibility of sources. there are standards now for how an analyst assesses a source and the information. we know from the president's action against bin laden he will ask the hard questions. what don't we know? what confidence do you have in the sources and intelligence before he makes a decision? >> colonel layton, has fran is referring to, when people think about wmd and the u.s. saying syria has this, a lot of people think to iraq when the u.s. made claims that turned out later to not be true. tom forman reported on what

syria reportedly has. three deadly kinds of chemical weapons. the first is mustard gas that causes severe burns and blindness, and respiratory failure and also sarin. and then the vx nerve agent attacks the nervous system and is one of the most deadly chemicals in the world. how good is the intelligence on what syria really has? >> it is pretty good, but it's not fool-proof. as fran mentioned there are some elements of intelligence that are guesswork, conjecture, educated guesswork to be sure, but still, they're conjecture. it's not like a court of law where you say this is the evidence, this is irrefutable proof. on the other hand there are certain things that the intelligence community can do. for example, they can assess how stockpiles were accumulated in a particular country. you mentioned that the russians had supplied some chemical agents to the syrians and that's absolutely true. you can assess how each area

supplies the syrians. you know what they've done, how they've done it and how often they do it. also you can have some intelligence sometimes from human sources that specifically outlines exactly, you know, how good the chemical weapons are, whether they'll be used, whether there's good training for it, what kind of training these people have and all of that is weighed in when they make their assessment. >> there are reports that the assad regime has loaded the chemical weapons onto missiles. you need to get between assad and the person that pushes the button on the missile. how do we know that? >> there are reports just this week from "the new york times" about preparations and from nbc. now, do we know that that's accurate? we don't, and no doubt right now inside the administration they're trying to assess exactly where are they in the decision cycle? where are they in the tactical process of getting and preparing the missiles and chemical weapons? >> what happens from here? it seems like it's more chaos

into anarchy and civil war. you have al qaeda groups and many different groups of extremists and militants fighting in u.s., it's a proxy war. if bashar al assad goes there's other sites who wouldn't have the moral hesitant see about using them. >> erin, to your point regardless of what happens to assad, we had it this threat, this problem not only to us but to our allies in the region. turkey, jordan, israel all worry about if al assad falls there must be a plan it to secure the chemical weapons sites. we should tell the viewers that the u.s. military has understood this problem and planning against that problem and working with allies in the region over the course of the last 12 months. they're not only thinking about this now. they understood this problem and planned for it. >> thank you very much, both of you. the third story "outfront."

accused navy spy. a former u.s. sailor from virginia beach has been charged with attempted espionage. he tried to pass it to a russian informant and instead spoke to an undercover fbi agent instead. he served in the navy for 20 years. this raises serious questions about the level of security clearance he might have had and his access to top-secret information. chris lawrence who has reported on this story. what specifically do federal agents expect robert hoffman of doing? >> they say in the indictment that he tried to give a secret document to someone that detailed how to track u.s. submarines. this document basically not only youpt lined the procedures you would use to go about doing that, but the actual technology that you would need to track u.s. submarines. it's very serious because u.s. navy officials often tell us

where surface ships and carriers are located around the world at any particular moment. they almost never discuss where the subs are. that is classified information. now, the indictment says that hoffman thought he was giving this to a russian intelligence agent. actually what he was doing is handing it over to an fbi agent working an undercover sting. these are very serious charges. he could face life in prison. >> when you think about what other information he may have had access to, how long this could have been happening or whether it happened before, what's his background and what sort of information, security clearance might evidence. >> pretty high. you mentioned he'd been in for 20 years. he was a petty officer first cla class. his rating was a chiropractcryp. he was a naval submarine warfare specialist, so he had a high security clearance, access to a lot of information. but the interesting thing is

over that 20-year career he had six good conduct commend additions, won numerous awards. so it remains to be seen if there was any sign of this when he was actually on active duty. remember, he had only been out of the service less than a year when he's trying to allegedly hand over this secret document to a russian spy. >> thanks very much, chris lawrence. "outfront" next, new jersey republican governor chris christie in washington asking for money. hypocritical or not? a day after john mcafee was in custody, he was rushed to want hospital. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents the cold truth.

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welcome back to the second half of "outfront." we start the second half of our show with stories we care about where we focus on our reporting from the front lines. first, anti-virus sof ware pioneer john mcafee was rushed to a hospital today.

he's just been released. his attorney says he was treated for cardiovascular problems. he was taken into custody yesterday accused of entering the country illegally. here's what he said as he was arrested. >> they're trying to arrest me. guatemalan jail bad, dude. it's pretty awesome. i'm not too concerned. >> john, where are you going? >> to jail. >> pretty awesome to be in jail in guatemala. mcafee requested asimilar lum in guatemala was denied. his attorneys say they rejected his position. he could be deporlted to belize where they want to question him. michigan police were forced to block the sfwrans of the capitol today. one estimates 4,000 people were inside and outside the capitol building. pepper spray was used on a person that tried to storm senate chambers.

legislation by rick schneider would limit unions' abilities to collect dues. it's headed for a senate vote. the u.s. navy is moving ships into position to monitor a north korean possible rocket launch. the defense department tells cnn's barbara starr that two ships are being moved to an unspecified position to provide reassurance to allies. it's possible two more ships could be sent to the region in the next few days. the taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that wounded afghanistan's intelligence chief today. a senior police official says they targeted the chief as he was leaving a meeting. afghan president karzai told reports he's confident he will cover. a programming note, i will report live from afghanistan next week on the future of the country. it has been 490 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? good news tonight. initial jobless claims fell more

than expected down 25,000. now our fourth sfoer "outfront." high times in washington state tonight. voters approved the law last month, but while it is legal to smoke pot, toke up, baby, it's not yet legal to grow or sell it. "outfront" tonight, miguel marquez in seattle. his eyes look pretty clear. it's legal there. if no one can legally sell marijuana, what does this it law so ground breaking really change? >> reporter: well, one, i've been here for 37 hours so i'm not looking so good tonight. two, you know, this is only the beginning. they are creating an industry here if this thing comes to fruition if the feds don't step in and stop it. pot is legal to own an ounce over 21, it's treated lie hard alcohol. in a year's time you'll have pot

stores in and across washington state. you'll have licensed pot growers and processors, cookie bakers, brownie makers and you have stores to buy it in that you wouldn't be able to do it amsterdam style in cafes or coffee houses and oous it there. you have to take it home and use it in private. it will unleash people are saying a wave of an industry and growth here. erin. >> interesting. barney frank told me he eats pot brownies and he said off camera to me he'd eat pot brownies. maybe i have to try them. are cops going to leave users alone and go after the dealers? are they going to pursue this at this point? >> reporter: at this point everybody is taking a break and steps back and see where it goes. it's legal to possess. it's not a high profile crime. going forward it's not likely to go after dealers, but they don't

want people flaunting the law. they want to put all the processes into place so they will tax it all at 25% by the way. they believe that in the first couple of years they'll make as much as $500 million a year to the state budget. it's a pretty big piece of the budget. >> it certainly is. the problem is, of course, this is a whole state's rights versus the federal government. you have colorado and washington saying we're going ahead with pot being a-okay, but it's a federal crime. what is the federal government going to do? could they shut it all down? >> reporter: this is the $64 billion question, what is the federal government going to do? the only thing thegsd so far is they're reviewing the laws in both states. they're going to sit back and see how they implement it and see where they can go from there. they reminded both states pot is illegal on the federal level. the concern is when you create havens of legal pot in colorado and here in washington state, and you have a black market around them, what's going to be

the effect? are these going to be nmagnets for illegal pot? are you going to have problems on the border and lots of pot out there? it's not clear right now. they're waiting to see how it goes. >> thanks very much to miguel. appreciate it. miguel is talking about marijuana and it got us thinking about the war on drugs. it cost this country more than a trillion dollars since it was launched by president nixon as the war on drugs 40 years ago, but the effort is increasingly dubbed a failure and waste of money. here's former president bill clinton. >> well, obviously, if the expected result is that we would have -- eliminate serious drug use in america and eliminate the narco-trafficking networks, it hasn't worked. >> maybe he regrets not inhaling. president clinton appears in the new documentary breaking the toob ba. sir richard branson, his son sam produced the movie.

he's a member of the global drug commission, and i spoke to him a few moments ago and asked him why they think the war on drugs is failure. >> it's a failure like prohibition to alcohol when the underworld in the former al capone reared its ugly head where everybody was disobeying the law by carrying on drinking and it became almost more fashionable to drink with prohibition than without prohibition. so, you know, over the last two years i've become part of something called the global drug commission. it's got many ex-presidents on it. we've examined all the facts, and the commission as a whole has said that we believe that drugs should be treated as a health problem and not a criminal problem. >> you have an amazing statistic in the op-ed you wrote for cnn saying we spend about $30,000 a year to incarcerate an inmate, people that go to jail for drug use, but wi spend an average of

urnld $12,000 for a public school student. >> it's terrifying. there are 800,000 people in prison for smoking marijuana today in america. an enormous amount of people. it would be so much better if they were out of prison being useful members of society. we just put out a film tomorrow, my son made called "breaking the tab taboo" which puts across alternative ways. >> if legalizing or allowing as part of the solution here, what would you legalize? just pot? other drugs as well? >> look, i think what the commission is saying and these are people who when they were in power did not have the bravery to do something about it, and they all accept that. now they're out of power. they've realized they made a big mistake not doing something. >> jimmy carter, bill clinton? >> exactly. so what they're saying is, first

of all, treat drugs as a health problem and not a criminal problem. anybody who uses drugs, you know, do not lock them up. if they use them in excess like if somebody uses alcohol, then help them. >> there have been studying done on marijuana that show among younger people that use it that it is often a gateway drug, that people who use it and get used to it will experiment with harder drugs, cocaine, heroin, or whatever it might be. does that concern you, or do you think that's not a fair concern? >> i think the possibility that people who go out on the street to buy their marijuana are going to be pushed to other drugs is considerable. i think if it's regulated and taxed and monitored properly by the thorauthorities that goes a. it pulls the rug out from under the drug pushers. >> what about the harder drugs, cocaine and heroin?

>> what we propose with the harder drugss do what portugal has done, and that is let the state set up clinics throughout america that if you have a drug problem, you go to that clinic and give them the methadone until they're ready to come off. when they're ready to come off use a drug clinic that costs a third of the price of a prison to get them back into society again. >> you're not making it legal to buy heroin or cocaine? >> no. what you did by having the state provide it to people who have a problem is completely pull the rug out from people pushing it. >> when this country has the office of national drug control policy, long acronym and we have a lot of groups dealing with this. when we asked them about the film and about the idea of sort of legalizing and focusing on drugs that way, they said we spend more on drug education and treatment than they do on law enforcement. what could they do better?

>> they could simply stop locking people up. if you're sent to prison, you end up in a far worse state than if you're actually sent to a drug rehabilitation center and helped. >> let me ask you, because you're known as a free spirit, right? do you smoke marijuana? >> i was a '60s lad. i tried when i was a teenager. i decided that drink is my drug of choice. so i prefer it to marijuana. whether the children of mine do, that's another story. >> i'm sure, right? they're in the age where i suppose it could be. all right. thank you very much. really appreciate your taking the time. >> cheers. thank you. >> pretty interesting and serious topic, although he did say afterwards he would want to try pot brownies. "breaking the taboo" will be available on youtube this evening.

we should mention the opinion piece is on cnn.com/opinion right now. it is amazing. some of the statistics in there are unforgettable. "outfront" next, violent proceed protests in egypt. morsi draesed supporters and protests and buildings are on fire. chris christie goes to washington hands out with a request for billions of dollars. n designed for men's health concerns as we age. it has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. one a day men's 50+. [ tylenol bottle ] me too! and nasal co [ tissue box ] he said nasal congestion. yeah...i heard him. [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. nyquil® cold and flu doesn't.

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we reach out to sources around the world. tonight we go to cairo where protests have set a building on fire. this was following a speech by the president mohamed morsi, and tonight president obama spoke with morsi on the phone expressing his concerns about how violent the protests are. i asked why morsi's speech failed to calm anyone down. >> erin, egypt and much of the world anxiously waited to see if president morsi's speech would fas fi the two sides in this conflict and win over the

opposition. based on on the reaction it did not. the president seemingly tried to do several things with the speech. he called for all political factions to get together and talk it out this saturday. he called for calm and issued a stern warning to protestors to stop the violence. he did not back down from his key position, that is, this controversial draft constitution will be voted on on december 15th, and the controversial decree that gave him additional powers he did not reverse them. he said that will only happen after the referendum. immediately after his speech, opponents of the president called for his ouster outside the palace. one of the muslim brotherhood offices was torched in cairo, signs that the conflict continues. erin. >> thanks. now to london where sir fines a man who is the greatest living explorer is taking on a new adventure crossing antarctica by foot. he asked about the conditions he

faces. >> erin, he is already considered the world's greatest living explorer, but that is not enough for our sir reynolds finnes. he's marked the start of the coldest journey on earth. that is crossing the antarctic on foot in winter. we are talking more than 2,300 kilometers or 2,000 miles in almost complete darkness in temperatures that plunge to minus 90 degrees celsius. that is a truly life-threatening expedition, because as he told me, if anyone on his small team gets injured, they are on their own. >> if we run into problems like that, there is no help because in antarctica in winter all the rescue facilities shove off. that's why every government, the americans, the germans, our own government have rules. you do not let civilians go down there in winter because if something happens it will be an embarrassment to the government. >> after four years he got

permission, and a ship is on its way. he'll join it in south africa, and there's one thing he's looking forward to before he sets off and that is a long, hot, soapy bath. it will be his last for six months. erin. >> now the fifth story. jersey shore meets fiscal cliff. chris christie was at the white house and on capitol hill today asking for more federal funding for the sfotorm ravaged state. a republican is asking for more money from washington, as republicans slam the president for additional spending is, well, perhaps problematic. democratic senator chuck schumer whose own home state of new york was hard-hit pointed out the irony of christie's request today saying it doesn't come at an opportune time of the fiscal cliff, both the talks and the fact we're short on money. will it hurt his party or not? roland martin joins me. good to see both of you.

ryan, you spoke very early on about how well you thought chris y christie handled this sform politically and ever other way, but now he asks for fungd as republicans try to cut spending. is he hurting his own party? >> whether you're a republican or democratic governor you want to secure money from federal taxpayers. that's a classic move. it sure is. is it undermining republicans in congress? it probably is, but frankly chris christie is looking out for his own political future and it's his only option. new jersey is in a very tight fiscal situation because they have a balanced budget requirement. they can't run deficits the way the federal government can, and this has a huge impact on the state economy. frankly, i think you see more situations in which republican governors are going to be pitted against the republicans in congress because those governors, for example, they want that medicaid money to keep flowing and that money to state and local governments in the form of stimulus.

i don't like it. other conservatives might not like it, but governors are in a unique position. >> please, please. can there really be one conversation where it is absolutely not so much all about politics. here's what i mean by that. if that was a natural disaster in south carolina, republican governor, texas, republican governor, tennessee, republican govern orr, that would do the exact same thing. the spoent of a governor, whether you're a democrat or republican, is to serve the interests of the citizens of your state. not your party. this is part of the problem, erin. if you're -- not only that. those same members of the congress, guess what? the new jersey delegation, i'm sure they're also saying, yes, governor do this. if it was in florida or some other state, this is exactly what you do when you have a federal disaster. so it's not about party. it's about the people who are hurt, who have had their homes damaged, not whether or not some

politician can be able to say, oh, we don't like federal funding. >> row lanld, we're saying the same thing. we say this is what governors are likely to do. the question is is this actually aa smart thing to do? the deeper problems is -- >> yes. >> i disagree. when you look at state governments, when they're not on the hook for the money that you're spending, they're less likely to pursue responsible policies in the first place. you look at florida. that's a state that's actually sub sid diesing development in flood prone areas. new jersey is doing the same thing. they're rebuilding areas super vulnerable to the storms and that's bad decision making. when you expect federal taxpayers on the hook for that, don't make smart planning decisions about the future. they're covering their own butts, if you will, but they're doing something that's damaging the country as a whole and the fiscal future of the country as whole. >> when fires ravaged texas, governor perry was highly critical because he felt the federal government should have declared those emergency areas so they can qualify for what

federal funds. the bottom line is it here. when you have natural disaster, this is natural, democrat or republican governors. forget the party. governor chris christie should not be concerned by the fiscal future. he could be concerned about every citizen in the state that he was elected to serve. his job -- those are his constituents and that's his job. >> look, i see where you come from. we have to think about this in a broader sense. if every state is looking out for itself, there's going to free ride. they're going to engage in policies that damage everyone's well-being over the long term by looking out for their own re-election prospects. these guys are being political rather than looking out for the long-term interests of their citizens, their states and also the country as a whole. rather than sub sid dies development in really dangerous areas. that's called moral hazard, and

that's something that's really bringing the country to its knees economically. >> last i checked, you look out for yourself. you might say that's not a great idea, if you're in new york -- actually, no, if you're in new york you're concerned about new york and not about california. you focus on where you are. that's a reality. >> all right. thanks very much to both of us. please let us know what you think about that on twitter and the facebook page. "outfront" next, what's a bigger insult than being a called do nothing congress? being called a new york jet. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief. this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills.

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silent over the fiscal cliff. most have headed home and the left and right aren't speaking to each other. of course, even though they're not talking to each other, that doesn't mean they're not talking about each other. here's what harry reid had to say about republicans today. >> not one of my favorite teams, but it's really, really fun to watch, and that's the new york jets. coach ryan. he's got a problem.

he has three quarterbacks. sanchez, he's got tim tebow, and he's got a guy by the name of mcilroy. he can't decide who the quarterback is going to be. that's the same problem republicans are having. >> wow. for those of you who don't live in new york or follow football, the new york jets are an nfl team currently plagued by horrible things. infighting and embarrassing losses that culminating with mark sanchez's infamous butt fumble on thanksgiving. it shows how grim it is for the new york jets since their name is synonymous with failure and infighting. even when they won by a mechely point, their hometown paper slammed them. that was when they won. this also shows how far the gop has fallen. since mitt romney's big loss last month. like the jets there's finger points and nastiness. while the republicans haven't

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